Bihar Board Class 11th English Book Solutions Poetry Poem 3 The Chimney Sweeper Text Book Questions and Answers.
Rainbow English Book Class 11 Solutions Poem 3 The Chimney Sweeper
Bihar Board Class 11 English The Chimney Sweeper Textual Questions and Answers
[A] Work in small groups and discuss their issues :
Question 1.
In your locality you might have come across several children working in different fields of life. Do you think it is proper to be engaged in work when one should be studying in school ?
Answer:
Children are called future of a country. In such circumstances it would be inhuman to take work from children as we see today. Children are •the buds of future. They have to work with books not with tools like hammer. So it is not proper to be engaged in manual work. They must be in the school.
Question 2.
Why do these children work ? Is there any compulsion to work or is it sheer ignorance on the part of their parents ?
Answer:
Working class children are poor. They work for bread, because their parents are poor who have nothing to feed them. Their parent are faultless and have no compulsion in sending their children to do manual work.
Question 3.
Make a list of the kind of work children are usually enraged in. Also, discuss the treatment meted out to them at their work place.
Answer:
Children generally work in hotel, Motor garage, small scale industries etc. Owners of these organisations are rude and they behave with them cruelly.
B. 1. Answer the following questions briefly :
Question 1.
Who is “I” in the first line ?
Answer:
‘I in the first line of the poem is “The speaker”, the boy who is a Chimney Sweeper.
Question 2.
Who sold the speaker and in what circumstances ?
Answer:
The speaker’s father sold him after his mother’s death. The speaker was sold as his mother had died and due to his poverty as well.
Question 3.
What does “my tongue/could scarcely (lines 2-3) signify ?
Answer:
My tongue scarcely cry, signifies that childhood is not a time to cry.
Question 4.
Who is Tom Dacre ? What has been done to him ?
Answer:
Tom Dacre is a little child working in the chimney. His curling hair is being clean saved. Tom starts crying. His hair was very beautiful
Question 5.
What was the consolation given to Tom by the speaker ?
Answer:
The speaker, gave consolation to Tom that when his head will remain clean shaved, his white hair would not be spoiled by the soot.
Question 6.
What does Tom see in his dream about thousands of sweepers ?
Answer:
Tom sees in his dream that there are thousands of sweepers like Dick, Jco, Ned and Jack, who are suffering like him because they have been unwillingly engaged in their job of chimney-sweeping.
Question 7.
What does the phrase “Coffins of black” signify here ?
Answer:
“Coffins of black” means job of chimney-sweeping. It signifies that chimmey sweepers work near chimney that carries off smoke or steam of fire from furnace, engine etc. Their work is not without dagger. Any time they may be runied. It also means that they are comforted in the chimney to work.
B. 2. Answer the following questions briefly :
Question 1.
Who has a bright key ? What does he do with it ?
Answer:
An angel has a bright key. He opens the coffins with it and sets all the children free from the coffins.
Question 2.
What change does the arrival of an Angel bring in the life of chimney sweepers ?
Answer:
The arrival of an Angel who sets chimney sweepers free from the coffins leads a happy life, breathe in fresh air. They are free from the compulsion of hard work like chimney sweeping.
Question 3.
The Angel tells Tom something about God. What is it ?
Answer:
The Angel tells Tom to look up to the Divine father and trust in His assurance and security. They (chimney sweepers) will never be unhappy in life.
Question 4.
What does the phrase ‘never want joy’ mean here ?
Answer:
The phrase ‘never want joy means the sweet grace of Almighty. God is with them. Now they will never be unhappy in life any more.
Question 5.
“We rose in the dark”—who does ‘We’ stand for ?
Answer:
Here in ‘We rose in the dark ‘ ‘We” stands for the children who were set free from the coffins by the Angel.
Question 6.
Why was Tom feeling happy and warm though ‘the morning was cold’ ?
Answer:
Inspite of the cold morning Tom was in tune with the Infinite and could rise above the physical conditions of life which appeared as a light of gossamer.
No harm comes to him who does h’s work as divine worship. So Tom was happy and warm even in the cold morning.
C. Long Answer Type Questions :
Question 1.
What does Tom see in his dream ? Describe in details.
Answer:
Tom sees in his dream that there are thousands of sweepers like Dick, Joe, Ned and Jack, who are suffering like him because they have been unwillingly engaged in their job of chimney-sweeping. All of them are busy working as chimney sweeper. They are also facing trouble while working near chimney that carries off smoke or steam of fire from furnace, engine etc. Their work is not without danger. Any time they may be ruined. Suddenly an Angel comes to them. He gets them free from their dirty and troublesome work. Now they have become free and happy children relieved of their burdensome work.
Question 2.
In what way is Tom’s dream significant ?
Answer:
Tom works as a chimney sweeper, amidst smoke or steam of fire, furnace and unhealthy gas of a chimney. He is spending a very miserable time there. Several other children are also unwillingly working there as chimney sweepers like him. One night Tom sees in his dream that an Angel arrives there and sets them free of their sufferings. Their agony becomes over now. They are free to move anywhere they like.
It is significant, in the sense, that a dream of release from the drudgery and dirt of chimney-sweeping, emboldens the children to continue their job.
Question 3.
What picture of the 18th century England does the poem create ?
Answer:
The poem presents the picture of the 18th century. It throws light upon the Wretched conditions of die children employed as chimney-sweeper by factories and industries! The children were required to work hard. Their heads were clean-shaved so that the soots (black powder from smoke) of smoldering pockers of fire from the furnaces may not bum them. They had to live and sleep under inhuman-conditions.
Question 4.
What is the theme of the poem? Does the theme have any particular ve’evance in our state or country ?
Answer:
The theme of the poem is most impressive and appealing. It touches the sentiments of mankind, throwing light upon the wretched conditions of the children employed as chimney-sweepers by factories and industries. The cluldrenriiad to work hard. Their heads were clean-shaved so that the dirty black smoke of shouldering pokets of fire from the furnaces may not harm them. They had to live and sleep under inhuman conditions. It is a subject of discussion which invites human sentiments and attention on the issue (problem). To treat him like a beast is really shameful and unfortunate.
Of course, in our country and states such sorts of torture and inhuman act is prevalent. In factories and industries child labours are employed and brutally treated. In tea stalls, hotels and restaurants, child labours are engaged in good numbers.
Question 5.
Narrate the gist of the poem in your own words.
Answer:
The gist of the poem is perfectly meaningful which touches the sentiments of the readers (poeple). If relates to the supression and evils of the child-labour and deserves the sympathy on their miserable condition and victimization. It very well throw slight on how brutally they were being treated in the eighteenth century. A child had to work as a chimney-sweeper close to the furance of a chimney. They had to sleep in the soot under inhuman condition.
Question 6.
Explain the paradox in line 23.
Answer:
Tom was not happy to work as a chimney-sweeper, like many other children, working in a factory. He was living in wretched condition. He had to work hard. He had to sleep in the soot of smoldering pockets of fire from the furnaces under inhuman conditions.
But in line 23 it is mentioned, “Tho’ the morning was cold, Tom was happy and warm”. It is a paradox. ‘A paradox is a statement which is apparently self-contradictory or absurd but it has a valid and more significant meaning.’
So why in such unpleasant and adverse circumstances (condition), Tom was happy ? As such here it seems contradiction. Going deeper to the situation (condition), we find that the previous night he had a dream. An angel came and freed all the children working as chimney sweeper in the factory. They got rid of their victimization forever. The dream made him to feel so. That is why, he was happy though the morning was cold.
C. 3. Composition :
Question a.
You have been asked by your teacher to deliver a speech on the occasion of Children’s Day. Prepare a speech on the occasion of Children’s Day. Prepare a speech with the help of your fiends in about 150 words on ‘the ways to deal with child labour in our society’.
Answer:
The Ways to Deal With Child Labour in our society: Children are the most precious property of every nation. But unfortunately India probably has the largest child labour force in the world. It is a matter of shame for all of us ? Our little children just eight to fifteen years old who should be studying in schools, have to work at meagre wages or for mere bread in factories and industrial concerns more or less as bonded labour. In spite of court rulings and efforts of humanitarians like Swami Agnivesh, the situation doesn’t seem to have much improved.
Let us think about its reason. In my view poverty is its main reason. A poor man with many children are compelled to send their children on work to earn livelihood. First of all we should do away with poverty. Then guardians should be encouraged. They need to make conscious. Variety in mid-day meal is essential. The poor child students should be given scholarship. The child labour system must be banned by our government followed by physical punishment. In my view these are ways to deal with child labour prevailing in our society.
Question b.
Write a short essay in about 200 words on ‘The Success of Sarva Shikha Abhiyan depends heavily on the abolition.
The success of Sarva-Shiksha Abhiyan.
Answer:
The problem of child labour is a burning problem of India. Children are the backbones and the future of a nation. But unfortunately India probably has the largest child labour force in the world. Our backbones are compelled to leave their studies. They have to earn due to poverty. Poverty is in its root. Though our courts have already banned.it, it is going on.
Several steps have been taken to abolish it. The present ‘Sarva Shikha Abhiyan’ is one step among them. Under this programme, the poor are made concious of the advantage of education. They are encouraged to send their children to .school. To attract and entice the child-students even mid-day meal is given. The District Magistrate of the concerned district presides this programme. He generally requests intellectuals to contribute in it. Now-a-days it is running in every block. Majority is contributing in it. Despite it, its success it heavily depends on the abolition of child labour.
Therefore Sa’va Shikha Abhiyan programme will be success only when the Government will take stem step against child-labour with necessary arrangement for their eduation.
D. 1. Word Study :
Ex. 1. Look up a dictionary and write two meanings of each of the following words-the one in which it is used in the lesson and the other which is more common:
Answer:
young — (i ) child, (ii) in the prime of life
want — (i) to lack, (ii) to need
sport — (i) to be happy, (ii) to play/make merry
warm — (i) comfortable, (ii) zealous/ardent
coffin — (i) soot bodies of the chimney sweepers, (ii) cloth to enclose corpse
D. 2. Form Adverbs from the Verbs and Nouns given below: new, fresh, wake, jar, foot
Answer:
new — anew/newly; fresh — afresh/freshly; wake — watchfully; jar — ajar; foot — afoot;
D. 3. Word-meaning :
Question 1.
Match the words given in coloumn ‘A’ with their meaning given in column‘B’:
Answer:
(1) – (b)
(2) – (d)
(3) – (a)
(4) – (e)
(5) – (c)
E. Grammar :
Question 1.
Join the following sentences using ‘though’ or ‘although’:
- Mamta was hungry. She gave her food to a beggar.
- Safdar had little time to spare. He came to see my ailing father.
- Birju laboured hard. He did not secure very good marks.
- Chhabi loved him very much. She could not tell him so.
- Mr. Lai knows very little. He is very popular among students.
Answer:
- Though/although Mamta is hungry, she gave her food to a beggar.
- Thou jjh/Although Safdar had little has little time, he came to see my ailing father.
- Though/Although Birju laboured hard, he did not secure good marks.
- Though/Although Chhabi loved him very mcuh, she could not tell him so
- Though/Although Mr. lal knows very little, he is very popular among students.